


I'd Like To Hang Out With You For My Whole Life

by cafephan



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Christmas, Fluff, proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-16
Updated: 2015-12-16
Packaged: 2018-05-07 03:03:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5441075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cafephan/pseuds/cafephan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Phil’s advent calendar is a daily treasure hunt, and Dan has planned everything to perfection.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'd Like To Hang Out With You For My Whole Life

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is inspired by the advent calendar that Zoe made for Alfie (as seen in their December vlogs) and the concept was far too adorable not to write a fic on so yeah, this is a thing.

_Day 1_

“Happy December!” Dan exclaimed after allowing Phil to open his eyes in the living room, greeted with the sight of two rows of twelve red envelopes, ‘merry christmas’ strung delicately between them.

“What’s all this?” Phil asked quizzically, and Dan grinned.

“This is me doing something exciting and romantic for you, for once” he stated proudly, “every day you open an envelope and it’s a riddle directing you to where a present is hidden”

Phil’s smile grew, and he wasted no time in retrieving the envelope marked ‘1’ from its peg and gently tearing the seal.

“Wait!” Dan called, and Phil froze whilst Dan ran back into the bedroom and returned with his phone.

“You’re filming this?” Phil asked in confusion, and Dan nodded.

“Only for our own viewing pleasure in a few years’ time, I want to mark the occasion that I did something special for you rather than the other way around, to prove I can be the romantic, spontaneous one”

“You can hardly call this spontaneous” Phil replied, gesturing to all of the envelopes on the wall.

Dan waved him off dismissively. “Stop being pedantic and open the damn envelope” he shot back playfully, and Phil complied.

He read over the riddle and then met Dan’s gaze, smiling even wider than before, Dan wouldn’t have thought it possible yet he managed.

“Read it out for the purpose of my super HD camera” he instructed, tapping on the phone screen to focus it on Phil’s beaming face.

“ _The first day’s present won’t be a surprise, it’s where we keep the spare…“_ Phil read Dan’s scrawled handwriting and thought about it for a second, before flailing his arms in realisation.

“Lights!” he shouted, startling Dan slightly, and made a mad dash to one of their supply cupboards, taking the carefully wrapped present from its wedged in position.

Dan smiled as Phil unwrapped the present, and chuckled when he saw Phil’s eyes widen at the sight of the novelty sized candle.

“Gift-wrapping goodness?” Phil asked in speculation, and Dan shrugged. He only bought it because of the name, he had no idea what it smelt like.

“Smells cosy” he reported, and Dan raised an eyebrow from behind the camera (phone).

“How can something smell cosy?” he asked, and Phil shoved the candle under Dan’s nose, in the process giving the camera an extreme close-up of his eye. “I stand corrected”

Phil nodded smugly and placed the candle on the mantelpiece, fumbling through a drawer for a match.

Dan took the time to flip the camera focus around to himself. “Day one was a success!” he told the camera with a thumbs up, smiling fondly at the sight of Phil lighting his new candle, calling a “thankyou” from in the distance.

At the same time Dan locked his phone Phil had finished the lighting process and finding the perfect place for the candle, and he walked over to press a gentle kiss to Dan’s lips.

“No matter how many times you kiss me I’m not letting you do the other days yet” Dan informed him with a knowing smile, and Phil pouted.

“Come on, it’s Christmas!” Phil persisted, but Dan shook his head.

“No, Phil” Dan replied, putting up with Phil’s excessive pouting and incessant begs.

“How about we put the other decorations up, would that make you stop this?” Dan offered, and Phil nodded incessantly.

“It would be a start” he shrugged, attempting to mask his excitement.

\--

_Day 2_

_‘Today’s gift is a little pack, you can find it where we stash the blu _ _ _ ‘_

“Clearly your rhyming is only improving” Phil joked as he read out the day’s clue, and Dan replied some kind of sassy remark that Phil didn’t bother listening to, as he was in another mad dash, this time to the kitchen, where he pulled open their ‘odds and ends’ drawer and dug around in it, giving up after a few minutes and turning to face a smirking Dan behind his phone once again, filming the whole thing (which he informed Phil he would be doing every day).

“It’s not here but the blu-tac is” he feigned tears, and Dan laughed.

“Maybe we have more than one place we keep things, genius” Dan whispered sarcastically, and Phil then set off again, this time in the direction of their office, Dan briskly walking behind him, capturing every moment.

“I’ve got it!” Phil declared as he held the package above his head victoriously, causing his boyfriend to laugh and shake his head.

Once the gift was opened, Phil held the contents between his fingers, and smiled up at Dan.

“The one thing we were missing” he stated, and Dan nodded in agreement. “I know the perfect place” he added, and made his way back over to where the calendar was hung and secured the mistletoe on the ceiling not too far away from it.

“Why there?” Dan asked, flipping the camera to himself momentarily before switching it back to a blushing Phil.

“I have a feeling it’ll get a lot of use there, I’ll be very thankful” he explained before leaning in for another kiss.

\--

_Day 3_

_‘Day number three is due to how well I know you, you’ll find the gift hiding in your _ _ _ _’_

“I have no idea..” Phil looked puzzled as he placed a hand on his hip and looked to Dan for help.

“Think about it, the number of dashes is the number of letters in it” Dan pointed the camera towards the gift tag with the riddle written on it, just so Dan and Phil in the future would know what was confusing Phil in the moment.

“Do you need a hint?” Dan asked, and Phil nodded vigorously, still studying the riddle hard. “I know you so well because we’re so in _step_ with each other” Dan not-so subtly emphasised the word ‘step’ and Phil snapped his head up.

“Shoe?” he asked, and Dan nodded, within the same second Phil was scrambling towards their shoe cupboard, taking them out one by one and sticking his hand in, in pursuit of a gift he didn’t know the size of.

“Firstly I wouldn’t hide it in my shoe, secondly you’re putting all those back once we’re done here, and thirdly I wouldn’t wrap your hand around it like that” Dan winced as Phil yelped, retrieving the present far too eagerly from one of his ‘fancy’ shoes.

“What even is this? You know me so well that you’re trying to kill me?” Phil asked, and Dan couldn’t respond due to laughing so much, the camerawork suffering as a result.

He unwrapped a mini cactus, a festive velvet red bow wrapped around its plant pot.

“So you do listen when I say I want to branch out my houseplant family” Phil gushed, admiring the cactus as he looked at it from different angles.

“I do indeed, and you should know that it was literally the hardest thing to wrap” Dan mumbled, recalling the memory.

But seeing Phil’s smile as he looked up at him made it all okay, and Dan was caring less and less about how soppy he was nowadays, it was a sign he was in love, and after six years he wasn’t scared to embrace it.

\--

_Day 4_

_‘Today’s present will be of much use, you can find it where you recorded the vocals for Emo _ _ _ _ _’_

“Ah, Emo Goose, one of my finest achievements” Phil recalled fondly as he made his way over to the sofa, digging between the cushions and effortlessly retrieving the tightly wrapped package.

“This gets more exciting by the day, just so you know” he told Dan, but stared into the phone’s camera, just for added effect.

“It’s good to know you’re not getting bored yet, you have a lot to go” Dan replied, not caring that his tone was full of affection, he didn’t bother to hide it anymore, not even in videos uploaded to their YouTube channels.

“Definitely not getting bored” Phil announced giddily as he tore away the wrapping paper, holding up the pack of ten festive socks in his hand towards the camera. “Also, definitely of much use, you were right”

Phil took no time in pulling a pair of reindeer socks onto his feet, and wiggled them around in excitement, and Dan was gleeful that his whole treasure hunt advent calendar idea was proving to be such a hit.

“Are you going to attempt to keep these pairs together?” Dan asked as Phil switched out the socks for a pair of snowman ones, and he shook his head.

“Probably not, love, matching socks just isn’t my thing” he grinned and Dan rolled his eyes.

“Phil! I bought you these so you could actually match for once, you know I hate seeing mismatched socks all over the floor!” Dan complained, but Phil simply kept smiling.

“But you love me, so it’s worth it” he told Dan flippantly, and the brunet shrugged in submission. 

“Mistletoe time, come on, you know the drill by now” Phil marched over to Dan and took his hand, prompting Dan to end the clip for the day as they shared their customary first kiss of the day under the mistletoe.

\--

_Day 5_

_‘To compensate for pinof7’s break, today’s gift is where every morning we _ _ _ _’_

“How suggestive of you, Daniel” Phil commented with a raised eyebrow, expertly dodging Dan’s playful punch in the arm as he walked into the bedroom, retrieving the present from on top of his pillow.

“It’s only as suggestive as you take it, my dear. I mean it of the utmost innocence” Dan shot back, and Phil only smiled as he began unwrapping the present.

“It’s not only where we wake, and you knew where my mind would go” Phil mumbled – barely audible to the phone’s microphone but more than audible to Dan, whom smirked – as he dropped the paper onto the duvet, holding the contents up for the camera to see.

“This bloody mushroom was in my ‘things I regret buying’ video for a reason, Dan, I don’t want another” Phil placed his free hand over his eyes as Dan laughed hysterically, falling on the bed, temporarily completely abandoning his filming duty.

“I bought it purely for your enjoyment, my love, I know you secretly liked being the owner of a ‘slightly phallic mushroom’” Dan mocked as he quoted the product’s description from the website, and Phil’s blush intensified significantly.

Phil got the mushroom out of its box grabbed Dan’s phone, flipping the camera around to himself and wiggled the mushroom in front of it.

“Dan of the future, try to recall why you bought this for me when I was more than happy for the first one to be out of my life. Phil of the future, refuse and reject all kisses for the rest of the day” Phil informed their future selves, and promptly ended the clip.

“How about today? Are all kisses refused and rejected today?” Dan asked when he eventually composed himself, and Phil threw the mushroom at him, biting back a giggle at Dan’s surprised expression when it hit him gently on the cheek.

“Yes. No matter how much you beg” Phil replied decisively, crossing both arms across his chest.

“Are you sure? I can beg pretty hard…” Dan adopted a sultry tone of voice which made Phil sub-consciously lick his lips, and he found the tiniest hint of frustration melt away with his overwhelming embarrassment.

“Oh yeah? Prove it” he ordered, and Dan grinned as he pulled Phil next to him on their bed.

\--

_Day 6_

_‘Today’s gift will be a delight, go look where you browse your favourite web_ _ _ _’_

“But I go everywhere on my laptop” Phil said in confusion, and was met with a shrug from Dan.

“Looks like you have a big hunt ahead of you then” Dan replied casually, putting all his willpower into keeping the phone held steady whilst Phil dragged him along from room to room in pursuit of the present.

Three rooms later Phil let go of Dan’s hand to run over to grab the gift from its position on top of his laptop.

“This could have been anywhere, I don’t discriminate against any rooms” Phil explained to the camera as Dan bit back a laugh.

Phil unwrapped another candle, and he had the exact same reaction to it as he did the first, which Dan was surprised about. Despite their extensive collection, Phil still took great pleasure in possessing new candles and giving Dan a running commentary on how he felt about them once they were lit for the first time.

“Christmas candy cane experience…” Phil read the scent off of the jar and met Dan’s gaze. “Where do you find these candles? These aren’t Christmas scents you find in any normal shop” he enquired, and Dan tapped his nose.

“Santa never reveals his ways” he spoke to Phil in a childish tone of voice, which made the blue-eyed man roll his eyes playfully.

“Danta Clause, has a ring to it” he sang, knowing how the nickname annoyed Dan, he did it every year just for the fact Dan got pouty and flustered at hearing it.

“Let’s not go through this again” Dan proposed, and Phil held up his free hand, the other occupied with lighting the candle, stood beside the first.

“Whatever you say…” he trailed off, and Dan thanked him.

“Danta” Phil added a few seconds afterwards, and at hearing Dan’s huff of frustration Phil burst into hysterical laughter, and Dan ended the clip for the day on him shaking his head and glaring at his boyfriend.

\--

_Day 7_

_‘Today comes one of my favourites, I’m sure you’ll agree, to pursue it take a peek underneath the Christmas _ _ _ _’_

“Any excuse to marvel at our beautiful rave tree” Phil smiled as he bounded over to their Christmas tree, whilst Dan shuddered.

“To say it’s a meme of ours I’d rather not mention, I should really stop endorsing it” he pondered, and Phil shot him a thumbs up, unable to speak as his tongue was sticking out his mouth in concentration as he reached around to the back of the tree to retrieve the only present that was there so far.

“It’s okay, though, I’ve already tweeted it” Phil shrugged, and Dan turned the camera to himself, shaking his head in disapproval.

“Yeah, I saw, I was very disappointed, Lester” he told Phil, and frowned at the camera when he didn’t get a response, as Phil was busy unwrapping the cylindrical gift.

He flipped the camera around at just the right second to catch Phil’s reaction, lips pressed together and eyebrows furrowed as he turned the can of ‘Yeezus Juice’ around in his hands, trying to grasp the concept.

“Is this a present for Phil or for Dan?” Phil asked, and Dan stifled back a chuckle.

“Well… this way you’re guaranteed to get me something I’ll definitely like, so I thought it’d be a good idea” Dan explained, and couldn’t help bursting into laughter at seeing Phil feigning shock.

“I’m an excellent gift buyer, thankyou very much!” he attempted a posh tone of voice, but his subtle Northern twang in his voice made it just that much more difficult.

“Yeah, I look forward to another piggy bank like the last two years” Dan joked, and Phil narrowed his eyes jokily.

“So what’s the concept? Is it supposed to taste like him or what?” he asked whilst reading the small print on the back of the can.

“It’s supposed to be the Kanye best” Dan said with the utmost sincerity – successfully managing to stop himself from laughing at the end of the sentence – and Phil shot him an infamous ‘are you serious’ look.

He placed the can on the coffee table and made his way over to Dan.

“Speaking of memes we’d rather not mention” Phil referenced Dan’s earlier statement and gave the camera an overdramatic sigh, and ruffled Dan’s hair as he passed him.

“Kanye not” Dan called after Phil as he set to walk after him into the kitchen.

\--

_Day 8_

_‘Can you believe we’ve been at this for a whole week? Today’s gift is great, go find it where I once trolled you playing hide and _ _ _ _’_

“I still can’t believe you left me hiding in the wardrobe for over an hour” Phil shook his head in disbelief, and Dan laughed in recollection as they made their way into the bedroom and Phil swung both sets of wardrobe doors open dramatically, retrieving the gift a second later.

“Whatever could it be?” Dan asked as Phil shook the gift, as he did every day in an attempt to guess its contents.

“It’s squishy” he observed, and Dan’s smile soon turned to a stern pout.

“Don’t say it” he warned Phil, whom smirked.

“Like you, Danny” he added, and Dan flipped the camera around to highlight his disapproval. Their viewers had taken a liking to referencing them as ‘squishes’ and ‘squishy’ recently, and something about it just didn’t settle rightly in Dan’s stomach.

“Just open it” he instructed, and Phil mock-saluted before tearing off the paper.

He held the t-shirt up against his body so the camera – and Dan – could get a perfect view.

The shirt read ‘I’m with bestest’ along with an arrow pointing to the left, and Dan jumped into the appropriate position and held the phone out to get them both in shot. Phil frowned emphatically and Dan grinned cheesily, even giving the camera his renowned peace sign.

“It’s not even a word” Phil tutted, and Dan shrugged towards the camera.

“Well what can you do, the shirt never lies”

Phil threw the shirt over Dan’s head as he waved to the camera then set to walk out of the room, muttering “nerd” as he passed him and then standing in the doorway watching on fondly as Dan ended the day’s clip in a ramble.

\--

_Day 9_

_‘I can’t believe we’re nearing halfway done, but today’s present you can find in the home of our _ _ _’_

“We’re nowhere near halfway done, it’s the ninth” Phil acknowledged with a raised eyebrow, and Dan sighed off-camera.

“It was for the sake of the rhyme, Phil, it was hard coming up with a new riddle and hiding place every day, okay?” Dan continued to rant from behind the camera as Phil took his hand and lead him upstairs into their office, where a neatly wrapped present laid upon the mechanical keyboard.

“It’s rectangular” Phil observed, and Dan giggled.

“Nice one” he quipped, and Phil looked up at him and smiled.

He unwrapped the new Sims 4 expansion pack, Get Together, and quickly set to reading about it on the back of the box. Dan took the time to flip the camera around to himself and comically tap on his naked wrist and shake his head in fake disapproval, then flip it back just as Phil finished reading.

“Dil needs to join Powerhouse, and maybe Partyhaus” Phil informed Dan, no hint of sarcasm or joking in his tone. He sounded sincere and almost excited.

“I was thinking more like the Paragons” Dan replied sarcastically, focusing the camera on himself as he spoke, making sure the camera knew via his expression that he was joking even if Phil wasn’t.

“He is a gym rat so Powerhouse seems right up his alley, and Partyhaus just because it seems fun!” Phil defended his choices, and Dan widened his eyes.

“Oh, so this is an actual conversation that we’re having, right now?” he asked, shooting the camera another ‘is he serious’ look as he flipped it back around to Phil, whom was looking up at him and nodded.

“Okay that’s enough for today” Dan announced as he locked his phone and placed it in his pocket, sitting on the sofabed beside Phil as he continued to gush over the new groups that came in the new expansion and how they should adapt it in their LP series on the gaming channel.

\--

_Day 10_

_‘Throwback Thursday is a thing, check in the place where you drunkenly danced to Hotline _ _ _ _ _’_

“No comment” Phil said as he placed his hand over the phone’s camera lens, and made his way over to the coffee table, picking up the present that was sticking out from underneath it, ignoring Dan’s constant laughter from off-camera.

The gift was soft, and Phil couldn’t stop a wide smile from growing on his lips as it tumbled into his palm. He placed the lion keyring upright on his palm, and straightened the little Santa hat which sat atop its mane.

“Thankyou” he thanked his boyfriend as he kissed him softly, and Dan laughed to himself.

“One of the ones I bought as a joke is the one that you thank me on-camera for” Dan tutted, and Phil shrugged towards the camera, and held the keyring in front of his face, boasting it.

“Old habits die hard. I’m going to put it in my background, see if anyone notices” Phil said giddily, overjoyed with his new stuffed companion.

“If you ever get around to filming a video, you’re slacking lately” Dan whispered the last part, and revelled in the shock that Phil’s reaction took the form of, but upon seeing Dan’s smirk Phil knew he was joking.

“You’re a fine one to talk, Howell” he shot back, and Dan felt himself begin to blush, even though he saw it coming.

\--

_Day 11_

_‘Time for something traditionally festive, a treat, look at where people usually keep their _ _ _ _’_

“Meat?” Phil asked, going out on a limb, and Dan nodded.

“Yeah the rhyming and wording both took a serious hit today, I hit a tad of writer’s block” Dan admitted.

Phil retrieved the gift from the fridge a few minutes later, and smiled as he unwrapped the gingerbread men.

“Traditionally festive yet we can get them all year round?” Phil laughed as he popped half of a gingerbread man into his mouth, and Dan sighed.

“Yeah you could say I also hit a little bit of buyer’s block for today, too”

Phil grinned and wrapped his arms around Dan’s neck – barely giving him enough time to lock his phone and slip it into his pocket – and kissed him deeply.

“I love them, thankyou” he assured Dan, who rested his head in the crook of Phil’s neck.

He could stay like that forever.

\--

_Day 12_

_‘Today’s gift is so amazing it’s practically on fire, it could cause an infection. Have a search in the room with One _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _’_

“Wow the rhyming is truly improving with every passing day” Phil joked as Dan placed his non-filming hand over his eyes in embarrassment.

“It’s difficult not to repeat rhymes, okay?” Dan justified his (self-admitted) weak rhyme, but Phil only laughed as he walked in the direction the clue identified, and found the door already open, the door-length poster of One Direction greeting him.

“Lovely to see you again, boys” Phil nodded in acknowledgement as he grabbed the present from on top of the bin, and closed the door as he left.

He stopped unwrapping halfway in the process, and looked up at Dan, who was silently laughing already, causing the camera to shake up and down.

“Are you serious?” Phil asked with a side-smile as he finished unwrapping their book _The Amazing Book Is Not On Fire,_ and held it up for the camera to see.

Dan flipped the camera around to himself. “You have to get that promo in whenever you can” he stated flippantly, holding up his free hand to accentuate his point.

“Buy it, it’s really great. Even though it’s only us in the future who will see this, buy it” Phil spoke to the camera, holding the book in his hands as though modelling it on an advert, as they’d been trained to do through the press junket for the book.

“Hashtag not spon” Dan added off-camera behind ending the clip for the day.

\--

_Day 13_

_‘Whenever we’ve tried we’ve not been the best, but today’s gift can help. Have a peek at where you try to tame your bird’s _ _ _ _’_

“I resent you calling my luscious locks a bird’s nest” Phil held a hand to his chest whilst Dan rolled his eyes.

“Just quoting your words from every morning… without fail” he replied, and Phil cocked his head to one side, narrowing his eyes at Dan who was biting back a grin.

“Touché, Howell, touché” he eventually blurted out, then sped off in the direction of the bedroom, leaving a startled Dan in his wake, who had to run for the first time in years so he had a chance of filming Phil’s reaction.

“Why are you using my surname so much recently? It’s weird” Dan asked, raising an eyebrow to the camera before switching it back over to Phil who was eagerly tearing off the wrapping paper from where the gift was rested on the floor-length mirror, to reveal a ready-made cookie mix, and he rested the jar on his palm, modelling it for the camera.

“Because I like it. Also, I don’t know what you’re talking about, we’re sensational bakers” Phil waved the riddle gift tag in his free hand whilst holding the jar closer for the camera, and Dan zoomed in.

“Considering we’ve burned them three times we’ve attempted and set the fire alarm off four times, I think this is the best solution” Dan stated matter-of-factly, and Phil conceded with a nod and a smile.

“Can we make them now?” Phil asked in excitement, doe-eyed and sticking his bottom lip out. He knew it drove Dan insane in the best way, and it had never failed him thus far. When he saw Dan lick his lips, he knew he’d won.

“But it’s only ten in the morning…” Dan attempted to be the voice of reason, but Phil persisted, and even added in a ‘please’ in the form of a drawled whine, and Dan turned the camera to himself, muttered a ‘so whipped’ then ended the clip for the day. Phil grinned, jumped up from the floor and grabbed Dan’s hand, tugging him in the direction of the kitchen.

\--

_Day 14_

_‘A gift for my favourite P A R T Y  B O Y, have a search where we keep our imaginary dog’s _ _ _ _’_

Over the past year, their viewers had been particularly consistent in hounding Dan and Phil to get a dog – especially when they hit their 5 million and 3 million subscriber milestones – so much to the point that they had acquired a pile of dog toys, gifts at YouTube events and meet and greets.

“I can’t believe you referenced your own Instagram caption” Phil shook his head as he walked over to the tub where they kept the dog toys, and Dan sniggered, quite frankly proud of today’s riddle.

Phil dug to the bottom of the tub whilst Dan filmed, occasionally huffing and tapping his foot in mock impatience, which only made Phil quicken the process as he pulled the gift out from underneath tug ropes and tennis balls.

He unwrapped a pack of two Hawaiian shirts, but with little attentions to detail in the form of Christmas figures in amongst the flora.

“I thought we could wear them to the party tonight, so you don’t have to wear that abomination that I bought you as a _joke_ last year” Dan explained, and Phil smiled and thanked him, and got the shirts out of their packets.

“Well this one’s obviously yours, right?” he asked for confirmation, handing the black shirt over to Dan anyway, “And this one’s for me” he smiled fondly at the light blue shirt that had the same pattern as Dan’s.

“Want to recreate ‘party boys’?” Dan offered, and Phil laughed heartily, but shook his head.

“I’ll take one of you, you haven’t uploaded anything in the longest time, I’m posting a video tonight hence I am the best” Phil made a grabbing motion for Dan’s phone which was handed over after ending the day’s clip.

After Dan had donned his Hawaiian shirt, he stood in front of the mirror and adjusted the collar multiple times, then fiddled around with the hem.

“I’m not getting any younger, here” Phil called, snapping Dan out of his adjustments, and he turned to face him.

“What face shall I go for?” Dan asked, a silly question said with the utmost sincerity. It took all of Phil’s self-will to not burst into laughter.

“You haven’t broken any hearts for a while, and you’re supposed to be the heartthrob out of the two of us” Phil shrugged, and Dan shook his head.

“Yeah I’ve never quite understood why people say that. But I think I have the pose nailed, are you ready? Count me down” Dan instructed, and Phil nodded in understanding, switching the camera mode to photo and putting it on a timer.

At the very last second, Dan turned from smiling sweetly to biting his lip and tugging on his collar.

Phil gulped.

“How did it turn out?” Dan asked as soon as the shutter sound went off, dropping his hands to his sides and a smile returning to his lips as he took his phone from a silent Phil, and clicked onto the most recent photo. “Perfect” he answered himself, as Phil was only staring at him, wide eyed and lips pressed into a fine line.

“Usually it’s only you that gets to see those kind of pictures, and anything more extreme” Dan stated as he began cropping and editing the photo to his liking, and he saw Phil nod out of his peripheral vision, and his smirk grew wider.

He regained the ability to speak a few minutes later, and looked over Dan’s shoulder as he saved the picture, ready to upload to Instagram later that day.

“December fourteenth, also known as the day that Dan Howell broke the Internet” Phil adopted a booming, announcer-type voice and Dan giggled.

“The Internet isn’t the only thing Dan Howell could break today” Dan quipped jokily, and there was no masking his surprise when Phil replied ‘okay’ and began leading him in the direction of the bedroom without so much as a second thought.

\--

_Day 15_

_‘Ten days to go until the big day, have a gander in the room where the taxes you do _ _ _’_

“Were you hit with rhymer’s block again?” Phil asked with a chuckle as he made his way to the office again, Dan shooting a nod and pout towards the camera as he followed.

The small gift was leaning against the monitor, and Phil held it out towards the camera.

“What could it be?” Dan sang off-camera, and Phil tapped a finger to his chin as he pretended to think.

“Yes, what could this gift be which is wrapped identically to two I’ve already received?” Phil sang in reply as he eagerly unwrapped the candle, this one in the scent ‘winter walks on the moor’. He wasted no time in running to the living room and lighting all three of the candles, basking in the warm glow they provided.

“Mistletoe time” Phil then pointed towards the mistletoe in the ceiling and Dan shifted the camera focus to himself.

“And that’s when we say goodbye to you for the day” he ended the clip promptly and scurried over to where Phil was already waiting beneath the mistletoe.

\--

_Day 16_

_‘Let’s mark the day with something ace, go and have a peek inside your suit_ _ _ _’_

“Are you mocking me?” Phil asked as he set off in the direction of their ‘everything’ room, where they throw everything that doesn’t otherwise have a place in their flat.

“Maybe, or maybe I was struggling for a rhyme again” Dan replied, silently mouthing ‘the first one’ to the camera before switching it back around to Phil.

“Definitely mocking me” Phil smirked as he reached the everything room, and placed a surprise, swift kiss to Dan’s lips before diving into his suitcase, moving the leftover clothes from tour they had yet to wash to retrieve the thin, flat present at the bottom.

“You know me too well, my love” Dan stated as Phil unwrapped the day’s gift – their 2016 calendar.

Phil placed it on the floor and looked up at Dan, the same ‘are you serious’ look as when he unwrapped tabinof.

“Seriously? The book and now this?” he asked, an undertone of amusement in his voice.

“They’re great gifts!” Dan defended, and Phil simply stood up and walked dramatically off camera, running back a second later to kiss Dan on the cheek, say he secretly loved receiving the calendar, and end the clip.

\--

_Day 17_

_‘On the seventeenth day of Christmas your love is giving to you…. Something you can find behind the _ _ _’_

“You’ve never said loo in your life” Phil rested a hand on his hip sassily as he waved the riddle around, after having to be told what the answer was, twenty minutes of cluelessness was Dan’s tolerance limit.

“Well what can I say, your northernness must be rubbing off on me” Dan replied, and Phil tutted in response as he reached around and grabbed the present resting against the back of the toilet tank.

“That’s not the only thing about me that rubs off on you” Phil mumbled (almost automatically) as he began unwrapping the present, and Dan quickly shifted the camera focus.

“I finally got it on camera! Phil in the future, you can never say i’m the only one that makes things inappropriate anymore! If he does, Dan in the future, you know what to do”

“What will Dan in the future know to do?” Phil asked as he held the unwrapped festive pyjama bottoms against his body.

“If I told you then you’d know what to expect” Dan stated, sounding shocked that Phil didn’t know.

Phil rolled his eyes playfully and let the topic drop, knowing Dan’s stubbornness was impossible to beat. Instead, he changed the flow of conversation.

“How do they look?” he asked as he put his second leg into the bottoms, and modelled them for his boyfriend.

“Perfect, but I bet they’d look better off, if you know what I mean”

Phil pointed to the camera, and ran up to it.

“See, Dan and Phil of the future? This is what pushes me to say those things, living with this!” he exclaimed and Dan shifted the focus to fit them both in shot.

“I guess we’re as bad as each other” he wrapped an arm around Phil’s shoulders and Phil nodded.

“Truly perfect for one another”

\--

_Day 18_

_‘For today’s gift from Phil trash number one, just go to the place where you love to belt out a _ _ _ _’_

“I belt out some amazing songs in the shower” Phil grinned, looking down at the riddle.

“Yeah, of course you do, as someone that’s heard every single one I don’t have the heart to tell you differently” Dan responded, and Phil ruffled his hair before making his way to the shower, leaving an amused Dan raking his hair through his fingers whilst still angling the phone.

“It sounds breakable” Phil observed as he shook the present back and forth.

“It will be if you keep doing that” Dan warned him, and Phil stopped abruptly, and settled for unwrapping it eagerly instead.

He held the box up for the camera to zoom in on it, two Lego figures that Dan had personalised to look like the two of them.

“I know where these are going” Phil sang happily as he dashed to the living room, sitting the figures in front of his candle collection on the mantelpiece. “Like the most diverse family there ever was”

“Yeah, our candle babies seem to love us” Dan commented as Phil rearranged the candles, so they were in a semi-circle formation around the figures. He couldn’t help but break out into a smile and admire Phil’s childish tendencies when it came to things like this, it was one of the many things he loved about him, after all.

“How would we even make candle babies?” Phil enquired, seeming genuinely intrigued.

“And that’s all for today, bye bye” he put away his phone and sat beside Phil on the living room floor for the next few hours, listening to his theories as to how they could make candle children whilst he rested his head on Phil’s shoulder.

\--

_Day 19_

_‘As we end our hunt in the teens I leave you with this, do you know where I mean if I tell you today’s gift is hidden where we shared our first _ _ _ _ ? [in this flat, ignore my terrible rhyme]’_

“You expect me to not know this, don’t you?” Phil asked, turning the riddle over in his fingers as he stared Dan in the eyes.

“Surprise me” Dan prompted, chewing on his lip. Maybe he hadn’t confused Phil after all.

“Come along, young one” Phil crooked his finger behind him as he walked into the kitchen, retrieving the present from behind the kettle in one swift motion. “Right on the counter here, it was the day we moved in, after three pizzas and a few too many cheap beers” he smacked his hand down on the counter, and Dan stamped his foot on the tiles.

“Damn, I thought I’d gotten you with this one” Dan mumbled as Phil unwrapped the fridge magnet, an exact – mini – replica of their TATINOF set.

“How long did this take you to do?” Phil was in awe, turning the magnet around in his fingers, marvelling at it.

Without giving Dan a chance to answer – which the brunet was happy about since he couldn’t even remember when he made it never mind how long it took – Phil stuck the magnet in the middle of the fridge, stating it had ‘pride of place’.

“But anyway, never underestimate me, I am known to be the romantic one, am I not?” Phil whispered the last clause teasingly as he pressed his lips softly to Dan’s neck, it always made him somewhat giddy that he was the only person able to touch Dan’s neck without him wriggling away.

“Has this month not proven otherwise?” Dan whispered in response, abandoning his cameraman duties and slipping his phone in his pocket.

“Well, you know,” Phil began pressing butterfly kisses to Dan’s neck, “it’s a start”

Dan swallowed thickly. “I guess I’ll just have to keep going, then”

Phil grinned.

\--

_Day 20_

_‘We love a good joke here in the Dan and Phil household, find today’s present where we keep the plaques of silver and _ _ _ _’_

Phil wasted no time in dashing over to where they kept their collective YouTube commemorative plaques, and took the present that was wedged between the a plaque for DanandPhilGames and DanandPhilCrafts, unwrapping it eagerly, as seemed to be customary this point, as did the shared kiss under the mistletoe afterwards.

“An alarm clock?” Phil asked, holding the clock up and not being able to fathom a logical reasoning behind it.

“So you can _wake up_ and realise I’m the more romantic one since I knew you’d deny it” Dan explained, emphasising his terrible pun and giving a fake laugh to the camera, whilst Phil broke into an inevitable laugh himself.

“You’re so adorable. A nerd, unbelievably so, but an adorable one at that” he told Dan, who shrugged.

“I can accept that” he agreed as Phil leaned in for the first kiss of the day and the clip ended.

\--

_Day 21_

_‘Today’s gift is for my love with the fondness for sweet, have a gander in the place where you concoct your favourite _ _ _ _ _ _’_

Dan watched on in amusement as Phil looked bewildered, completely unaware of the riddle’s answer. Phil had often said over the years that he comes up with his best video ideas and tweets whilst in Dan’s bed, for some reason, and Dan could practically see the cogs turning in Phil’s brain as he tried to decode the riddle.

A few seconds later he sprang into life and flailed his arms as he repeated ‘I’ve got it’ and then ran into Dan’s room – which they actually use as a spare room but was still referred to as Dan’s room – and Dan had barely enough time to film Phil getting the present from under the pillow before the other man ran back out and into the living room, placing the present on the coffee table as he tore away the wrapping paper.

Today’s present was a pack of personalised marshmallows with various pictures of the two of them over the years printed on top of the marshmallows, and Phil smiled widely.

“Because I’m just not sweet enough already” he joked, and Dan stretched out his arm so the camera got them both in shot.

“You literally just stole my joke” he said in outrage, and Phil smiled sweetly at the camera, then to Dan.

“That’s the only reason why I said it. After six years, I know how lame your jokes are, what they are and when to expect them” he explained, pecking Dan’s lips quickly before opening the box of marshmallows and eating one with their renowned Apple Store selfie on into his mouth, watching fondly as Dan ranted to their future selves on camera and responding when needs be.

He had never been surer of his relationship than this month, truly, all the effort that Dan had gone through wouldn’t have been undertaken if he didn’t care. And that in itself was enough to let a single tear drip down his cheek.

\--

_Day 22_

_‘To make life a little easier, you can find today’s gift in the _ _ _ _ _ _ _’_

“I’m presuming freezer? You’ve tried a half rhyme?” Phil asked, and after Dan narrowed his eyes and nodded he couldn’t help erupting in laughter.

“You don’t have to rub your English degree in my face every single chance you get, you know” Dan mumbled off-camera as he followed Phil into the kitchen, ensuring it was in focus. “Bloody half rhymes, just say rhymes” he added, chuntering to himself as Phil dug around in the freezer drawers, eventually retrieving the present from beneath a tower of frozen pizzas.

After unwrapping the hot chocolate mix, it was immediately poured into a mug and the kettle beside it switched on, it seemed all in one fluid motion.

“You’re not wasting any time, are you, Phil?” Dan asked, making sure they were both in shot, and Phil gave the camera a thumbs up and cheesy grin.

“No time like the present! Now if you’ll excuse us we have chocolatey business to attend to” Phil placed his hand over the lens and Dan stopped the recording.

“Wording, Phil” Dan placed a hand over his eyes whilst Phil laughed, not realising how what he said could be construed any differently than his innocent intent.

\--

_Day 23_

_‘Today you can probably predict, have a peek in the bathroom  _ _ _ _’_

“Before you mock my rhyming again I know it’s terrible. Just go to the bathroom and find it” Dan interjected as Phil opened his mouth to speak, but he made a zipping his mouth shut and throwing away the key motion instead, and silently made his way to the bathroom, biting his lip to hold back his laughter as he did so.

The present was impossible to miss as it was propped up in the sink, and Phil held it out towards the camera, and giggled. “Is it a new addition to our candle family, by any chance?”

“Only one way to find out” Dan prompted, and Phil tore away the paper to reveal another candle, this one in the scent ‘Mistletoe kisses at midnight’.

Looking back, Dan realised he chose the most ridiculous candle names and scents for Phil, but the regret was washed away almost instantaneously when he saw how gleeful Phil was when he lit them all, he didn’t care at all. And with that being the case, why should Dan?

Phil was a sucker for sentiment, and that was what Dan had tried to play on. He tried to pour a little emotion into every gift – albeit, some more than others – but Phil seemed to have loved them all so far, and that on its own was enough to keep him smiling for the rest of the month.

\--

_Day 24_

_‘It’s Christmas Eve, hasn’t this gone fast? Here’s a cheat of a rhyme; check where we get _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _’_

“You’re rhyming fast with fast? When it’s not even pronounced the same in breakfast?” Phil asked with a chuckle, and Dan sighed dramatically.

“I even said it’s a cheat rhyme, what more do you want from me?” he called from behind the camera, and Phil shook his head as he walked into the kitchen, and ran his hand across the top of one of the cupboards, where they kept the boxes of cereal.

“There’s nothing there” he spoke decisively after running his hand across it a few more times despite Dan’s insistence that it was.

“It’s very flat and very thin, you have to really feel around for it” he informed Phil, who nodded and tried again.

“This feels like a trial on I’m A Celebrity” he commented, and Dan laughed heartily.

“You’d be terrible on that show, you wouldn’t willingly do anything and you wouldn’t cope on the rations” Dan responded, and Phil flicked him off playfully as he continued feeling around for the present, which he succeeded in doing, the fourth time afterwards.

“What even is this, Dan” Phil waved the present back and forth, watching in amusement as it flopped both ways he waved it.

Dan simply shrugged and winked off-camera, causing Phil to blush as he carefully unwrapped it.

Dan saw Phil’s blush intensify as the identity of the present became clearer to him, and bit back a smirk as Phil looked up to meet his gaze.

“Well, show the camera what you got!” he insisted, attempting to weasel his phone between Phil’s arms for it to get a view of the present, but Phil knocked it away, cheeks flushed bright red.

“It’s a coupon for, and I quote, ‘Dan love’, whatever that means” Phil revealed a few minutes (and kisses) later, reluctantly holding the paper up for the camera to see and Dan zoomed in.

“We both know what that means” Dan called out-of-shot, and Phil buried his head in his hands out of embarrassment, but Dan couldn’t help but notice how Phil was now sat with one leg folded over the other.

“Stop filming me” Phil pleaded through the laughter he had now broken into, and Dan complied, sparing the Phil of the future from suffering any second hand embarrassment whenever they watched the clips back.

However, as soon as Dan put his phone away, Phil jumped up, whole expression seemingly shifting in an instant. He strode over to Dan and held the coupon between them.

“Is it too early to redeem this?” Phil asked, tone innocent but pupils significantly dilated.

“It’s redeemable any time, it’s written on it” Dan whispered, and Phil subtly darted his gaze in the direction of the bedroom then down to Dan’s lips, and then to his eyes again.

“Then I’m cashing in my first dose of Dan love”

That was all that was needed.

\--

_Day 25_

“Dan wake up it’s Christmas!” Phil sang as he incessantly poked Dan in the arm. The time was 6:45am and it made Dan groan.

“Phil go back to sleep, just for another hour or something” Dan pleaded, but Phil didn’t stop poking him, and it was impossible to ignore.

Once he was fully conscious and most elements of sleep had left him he was just in a state of awe, admiring at Phil’s childish delight on this day of year, and his eagerness to tend to his presents was quite possibly the cutest thing he could fathom.

“Which do you want first, the final part of your advent calendar or the rest of your presents?” Dan asked, rubbing his hands over his face to fully wake himself up whilst Phil pondered the decision behind him.

“The advent calendar” he came to a decision mere seconds later, and Dan couldn’t help but smile at the fact that Phil wanted to open the advent calendar that he made for him before any of his other presents. It was a small thing, minute, really, but it still made him overwhelmingly happy.

“You go film this one yourself, I need to get dressed and shower and stuff” Dan stated, handing over his phone which was readily loaded on the camera app and set to record video.

“Are you sure you can’t hold on for like ten minutes?” Phil asked, and Dan shook his head.

“This day is full on, I won’t have time to do anything else later, it makes sense to do everything now” he explained, and Phil nodded in understanding, leaning to kiss Dan passionately after a final thankyou for the advent calendar, and after that he was excitedly on his way to retrieve the final envelope. It was bittersweet, but his excitement definitely outweighed any other emotion.

_‘Today the real treasure hunt begins, are you ready for this? Go back to the clue for the day after _ _ _’_

Phil’s brain was working in his favour, and he pegged the riddle back to the wall and glanced towards the riddle on day 7, and dashed over to the Christmas tree, but an identical gift tag was hanging off of one of the branches rather than beneath it, as various presents from family and friends were now dotted beneath the tree instead.

He read the second riddle carefully.

_‘Two down and one to go, I hope these aren’t getting too old. Go to the place where the milk and eggs stay _ _ _ _’_

Phil showed the camera, and wasted no time in striding over to the fridge, and slotting the tag out from under the egg tray and reading it excitedly. He wasn’t ashamed to admit that this was one of the funnest times of his life, and it was happening right in his very own home.

_‘It’s Christmas Day, and you’re probably full of glee. Have a check in the place where you said you first thought about marrying _ _’_

“I remember it like it was yesterday” Phil cooed to the camera, then shook his head and smiled as he padded back into their bedroom – which was still referred to as Phil’s room in most cases. He was a little confused as to why the riddles had led him in a full circle, but the short walk to the bedroom was filled with recollection, and he felt butterflies in his stomach.

It was at twilight, a misty July night in 2013, neither of them could sleep. So they stayed up all night talking about everything; life, ambitions, dreams, the future. Phil told Dan he’d thought many a time about what their future relationship could hold, and he said he hoped it would include marriage, because it had in all of his fantasies.

Dan cried, he cried so much, and they have both thought about it every day since.

Phil gently knocked on the door as to not interrupt Dan’s dressing, but after hearing Dan’s gentle ‘come in’ he twisted the doorknob slowly, feeling unnecessarily nervous, he would only be getting a present resting on the foot of his bed, anyway.

Although that simply wasn’t the case.

“I picked the perfect build-up, huh?” Dan asked, voice close to breaking as he shuffled from one knee to another, and retrieved a velvet box from his bedside drawer.

He clearly hadn’t moved a muscle except to get down on one knee, his hair was still dishevelled and he was still in his pyjamas. But neither of them cared, and all Phil could focus on was the ring that was being held out to him, reflecting from the lights above them and the brown-eyed man behind it whom was shaking erratically.

Without thinking, Phil dropped Dan’s phone as he threw his hands up to cup them over his mouth, and fell to his knees, not bothering to stop the tears that had already began to fall down his cheeks.

“I-I have no idea how I’m supposed to do this,” Dan began, running his hand through his hair as he attempted to find words to say, “but I’m pretty sure I’ve said everything before, we’re both as soppy as each other” he continued shakily, and took one of Phil’s hands in his own.

“But I suppose I’ll just summarise?” he looked to Phil for any form of a response, but he seemed frozen, only moving to wipe away tears with his free hand.

“I can’t think of anyone I’d rather spend my life with, but we’re not ones for clichés. There’s nobody I’d rather wake me up at six forty-five am on Christmas morning at twenty-eight years old, there’s nobody I’d rather wake up to in the morning, there’s nobody else I want to even think about. It’s always been you, and I don’t feel like I’ve told you that enough”

Phil’s breathing was uncontrollable, and he had no chance of being to respond with a functioning sentence, so settled for swallowing back the multiple lumps in his throat and wiping his streaming eyes from time to time so he could pay full attention to every syllable that Dan was speaking.

“So this is me promising to try and be the best husband I can be, because you deserve nothing but the best. I’m speaking in clichés again, I know, but I can’t help it. Think of everything I’ve said to you, all of those late night conversations, everything I said back in two thousand and nine, and think of it all coming out of my mouth now. Because frankly, right now, you’re all I can focus on, and my mind is all over the place, and only one phrase is running around my mind.”

Phil’s breathing hitched and his chest tightened as he knew what was coming.

“Philip Michael Lester, will you marry me?” Dan asked, tears spilling down his own cheeks, and his heart was pounding in his chest as he awaited Phil’s response.

“Yes” he whispered breathlessly – that was all he could manage – and Dan sighed in relief, slipping the ring daintily onto Phil’s finger and breaking into a small grin, which Phil reciprocated when he looked down at his finger.

The gap between them was closed a second later as they shared their first kiss as an engaged couple, though the only thing they could taste was the other’s tears as they both continued to cry, but none of them cared.

That’s how they stayed for the remainder of Christmas morning, sobbing happily into each other’s arms and admiring the ring, whilst the morning sunlight peeped in and bounced off of their tear-stained cheeks as they repeated ‘I love you’s and exchanged minute-long kisses.

**Author's Note:**

> MY SECOND CHRISTMAS FIC OF 2015 IS DONE YAY
> 
> This actually took so long to write you have no idea, but I’m happy with the end result, I hope you are too!
> 
> As always, please please let me know what you thought, thankyou for reading and thankyou for your ongoing support xx


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